WPCNR THE POWER NEWS. Reporting by John F. Bailey and a news release From Town of Greenburgh Supervisor Paul Feiner on the PSC Evaluation. April 21, 2010: The Public Service Commission is looking at how Con Ed prioritizes power restoration. Con Edison reported today exclusively to WPNCR that the clean-up of two storms snow on February 26 and a near-hurricane on March 13, cost the company $31 Million to restore power.
The Chairman of the New York State Public Service Commission, Gary Brown, advised Paul Feiner, (the Supervisor of the Town of Greenburgh one of the last communities fully restored during the recent “storm with no name” that devasted the county, knocking out 70,000 Con Edison customers over the weekend of March 13, 9,000 of them in Greenburgh) that the PSC is–
“performing their own assessment of untility performance. Department staff is in the process of investigating the company’s (Con Edison) overall restoration efforts” including the priority issues raised by Feiner.
Specifically, the question “regarding the priority order in which customers are restored and how crews are resourced to each service area during the restoration effort will be part of our (PSC) investigation.” Mr. Brown indicated that we should be “assured that we have given this matter a high priority.” The department will apprise of the outcome of our investigation when it is complete.”
Bob McGee, a spokesperson for Con Edison, in responding to a WPCNR question three weeks ago of whether Con Edison saves money by calling in out of state crews after a storm has completed, instead of calling them in in advance so they could be at “full strength” as soon as the storm ends (and telling them to turn back if a storm does not do as much damage as expected), issued this statement last Sunday:
Bronx-Westchester – $6 million
March 13th Storm:
Bronx-Westchester – $19 million
Staten Island – $6 million
Total for all storms – $31 million
Feiner is the only public official to vocalize any withering criticism about Con Edison’s performance during the 2-day storm with winds up to 70 miles per hour.
Feiner had asked if customers are entitled to refunds. The PSC responded by saying that “Con Ed’s tariffs do not call for food reimbursement to customers related to outages caused by major storms
Feiner had objected to the fact that during the storm Con Ed restored power to Westchester customers last –Staten Island, Manhattan, Bronx were restored first. Feiner also asked the PSC to investigate why some areas of
Asplundh Bronx West
Hawkeye Bronx West
Hawkeye Long Island
Asplundh – New Jersey
B/Q Hawkeye
First Energy – Ohio-Didado
SPE
McDonough/State Electric Corp – Mass
D&D Electric
O’Connell Electric
CWW
Lee
Extreme Power
Mastec
Pike
River City
Kemp Power
O&R Crews with Prendergast
Georgia Power
David H Elliott Co.
B/W Line Clearance (LTS)
Asplundh PPL
Lewis Boston
Lewis BG&E
Lewis B/W
